Those Cabbage Patch Kids

We are currently working on an upcoming estate sale and unpacked several brand new 1983 Xavier Roberts Designer Cabbage Patch Kid outfits.  I remember that Christmas when people were stampeding in the stores at Christmas time wrestling and punching other shoppers in order to get little Billy or Susie the hottest toy of the year, the Cabbage Patch Kid.

Xavier Roberts was a North Georgia art student who discovered the art of soft sculpture doll making.  He won some art shows with his “children” and people wanted to purchase one for their own.  Mr. Roberts said that he could not “sell” his babies but that for a fee, they could be adopted and came with a birth certificate.  Was this guy a genius or what?  His first doll was named Dexter and he called his dolls Little People.

Word spread and publications like Atlanta Weekly and Newsweek picked up the story.  People starting adopting the dolls second hand from owners and paying five to ten times the original adoption fee and an Atlanta business man bought the rights to manufacture an market the dolls through Coleco.  The Little People name was already owned by Fisher Price so they renamed the vinyl headed and slightly redesigned dolls, Cabbage Patch kids after creating a kids storybook about how the “kids” were born in the cabbage patch.

By 1983 the dolls sold over 3 million units and the manufacturer couldn’t keep up with the demand.  In 1985 a Cabbage Patch Doll astronaut traveled to space in the Space Shuttle.  In 1992 they were mascots at the Barcelona Olympics and were featured on a United States postal stamp in 2003.  

The company has changed hands several times and you can visit the Babyland Hospital in Cleveland Georgia and adopt your very own Cabbage Patch Doll.  Adoption fees start at $260!  I think I would rather rehome them from a thrift store or garage sale!  Nostalgia sells and 80’s kids are buying Cabbage Patch Dolls for their kids and grandkids.  Happy Collecting!